Feeling rather emotional today as we prepare to say bye bye both to Vietnam and to Jade and Rob, who are heading West to Laos while we go North to China. The last month has been absolutely brilliant fun thanks to the great company, the million games of spades we’ve played (always in completely good humour and with never a bitter word towards the winning team) and the fabulousness (and occasional chaos) of Vietnam. We loved it so much we’ve even made a video (I say we, I mean James)…

Over the past six weeks, Vietnam has continually stunned us with its unbelievably diverse, colourful scenery. Despite thirty years of war and decades of lax governmental conservation laws, it is one of the most naturally beautiful countries I’ve ever visited, and the northern mountains, our current location, are the icing on the cake.

Read the rest of this entry »

Here’s some photos from our short jolly to Ha Long Bay. We spent a few days on a boat cruising amongst the karsks, caves and floating villages, got drunk on Vodka that was cheaper than water, played silly drinking games with fellow travellers, swam in the sea (until the jellyfish closed in) and hiked up a huge hill with the mother of all hangovers. All in a days work for the intrepid, fearless explorers ;-)

 

Our overnight bus from Dong Hoi dumped us at 4am by the side of Highway 1 in Ninh Binh – a rather non-descript town two hours south of Hanoi.  We’re visiting Ninh Binh as it’s the closest town to the Cuc Phuong national park, a huge patch of tropical rainforest in a valley of limestone hills.  We rented motorbikes and headed to the park, the journey was amazing – we passed through incredible rural scenes of locals working in lush green paddy fields and herding cattle in the shadow of stunning limestone karsks.  The national park is one of the best we’ve visited so far.  It was peaceful, cool and full of sights, from the homes of prehistoric cavemen to 1000 year old trees.  We ate lunch before visiting the primate rescue centre, home to over 150 monkeys that have been rescued from all over Vietnam.  I was particularly fond of the langurs with their silver fur and orange faces and the long-armed gibbons (although I did have to question their rather lacklustre parental skills).

Read the rest of this entry »

Hue is definitely the most Francophile city we’ve seen in Vietnam, but it also shares one charming characteristic with Manchester – it sees a higher annual rainfall than anywhere else in the country. So after a laid back few days there, with a dodgy weather forecast looming, we decided to head North across the demilitarised zone and into Northern Vietnam – first stop, Dong Hoi, the best place to visit the Phong Nha Caves from.

Read the rest of this entry »

After an exhausting four days of, erm, shopping in Hoi An we decided to recharge our batteries and our credit cards with a brief stop at China Beach, since it’s only 18km away on the coastal road to Danang. It turned out to be a great decision and a one night stop over turned into a four day seafood, surf and beer frenzy at what has got to be one of the best beaches ever.

Read the rest of this entry »

I apologise for the lame blog title.  Even after two beers and a mojito (in a fetching little courtyard under a bamboo tree – how very Graham Greene)  neither Jeannie or I could come up with anything better.

I can’t believe it’s nine days since we blogged last – we’ve covered a lot of Vietnam since leaving the comfort of our luxurious hotel in Siagon. We’ve also met up with Rob and Jade, who we first met in Jodhpur in March, and we’re now working our way though Vietnam together.

Read the rest of this entry »

We’re very gloomy this morning as we prepare to leave the little cocoon of luxury we’ve been nestled in for the past week and return to the world of cold showers and hard matresses. We arrived in Vietnam last Sunday and proceeded directly to Saigon to meet my old dears (mum and grandma), who’d just arrived for a two week visit, and found them in a very pretty colonial hotel smack in the centre of the posh district. When they offered to book us a room for a couple of nights it would have been rude to say no…’We’ll move out to the backpacker area in a day or two though’ we said, conscious of the room rates…eight days later we’re still here, having become almost a permanent fixture by the swimming pool every afternoon. Whoopsy.

Read the rest of this entry »

Just a quickie – our map is now working again – http://www.jamespoyser.com/travels/our-map/